MasterBates
Well-Known Member
It's huge. And I could not park within sight of it, even though they were not home.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Blue Angels - Victims of Budget Cuts?
- Thread starter CAMike
- Start date
I understand what you're getting at, but they also have a ton of riders in their performance contracts which may or may not add up. They may also be comped, too. I'm guessing their parts are a large part of their cost, along with fuel. When you're a FAD 1 and can buy anything you need, I'm sure you do.
Bigger than for a normal unit, definitely. Big relative to everything aircraft related, no. An F/A-18 flight hour buys a lot of hotel rooms. I don't know specifically what their work schedule is, but I'm sure it gets slid wildly while they prep for a given airshow. Making it to the chow hall during the right hours may not even be an option, even if they are on a military base, which would be the minority of their shows.
Some dumba**will suggest reducing the teams to 3 ships each, or worse, "combining " the demo teams, maybe 3 Hornets, and 3 Vipers with the lead switiching services every 2 years, along with contracting out cargo services and doing away with Fat Albert and the Birds' C-17.
Senator XXXXX (D) from CA/MA/NY/IL, etc stated "it would be a fitting tribute to our joint effort in the GWOT to have our flight demonstration teams reduced and combined into one, smaller, more fiscally responsible unit."
You heard it here frst
All that makes sense, but...
I'm looking at it fatalistically- as if I were a mean old bean counter thinking that everyone will share the pain and everyone will have to figure it out... Stearmann's comments might be tongue-in-cheek and a little over the top, but something along those lines.
If I were defending the Blues' budget, I'd point Congress straight to Nellis for a guided tour of the T-Bird's facility and hand them a folder with the itemized per-flight hour cost of a C-17 vs a well used C-130. That would keep them busy for a while. You could even point out "The Blues don't even wear G suits, that saves anther 25K+!"
Realistically, the Blues have survived for 65 years, with just a short break for the Korean War when they formed the nucleus of the fearsome Satan's Kittens, and in much leaner times than we face right now so I think they will likely survive in their current form for some time.
ryan1234
Well-Known Member
The Air Shows provide their hotel rooms and rental cars, IIRC. Most hotels include breakfast, lunch is generally provided by the show as well. There are a lot of items that are in the demo teams' Support manuals that 'saves' the Government money already. Not sure if their Per Diem is adjusted accordingly. They are already running pretty efficiently. They are a great recruiting effort.
Also, let's not kid ourselves here. Saving money by getting rid of the Blues or other demo teams is not 'saving money'.. that 'saved' money will all of the sudden become free money in which politicians will use to further their earmarks, etc.
Bingo...
Thank you. The day that I see a politician actually "Save" money in the literal sense and actually do something about making a serious dent in the National Debt will be special to me.
jazzdude
New Member
I'd fall in that category - seeing them was one of my earliest childhood memories. I ended up deciding on joining the AF, which turned out well for me, as when I did my NAMI flight physical I was told that had I been Navy, that would be the end of my flying career, but since I was AF I was good to go.
As far as the C-17: it's not part of the team, just a line aircrew on another TACC mission hauling stuff around the US/World. Still expensive though, not sure what the cost comparison is between a -130 and a -17. If they wanted to save money, they'd stop sending me out flying an empty C-17 on missions, but hey, what do I know?
Of course, the next target will be the expense of bases holding air shows. This will not take into account that they are often money makers for the installations. As was repeated often during the Miramar Air Show, MCCS makes more money in those three days than it does the rest of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to "save" money by canceling air shows, then have to add money into the MCCS/MWR accounts to make up the deficits in those programs.
I'm sure we'll re-coup that money with the coin we save thanks to our brand-new solar-powered parking lot lights...and solar-powered LED stop signs.
Or, perhaps, MCCS/MWR could make up for the deficit of lost air shows by simply getting out of the department store business...and DECA out of the grocery store business...especially in CONUS.
-Uniform items, barber shops, field gear, and convenience store items? Sure, keep those - I think more Marines use the Miramar 7-Day Store than the main exchange.
-Designer cologne, suits, art, electronics, etc? Nice to have, sure, but does the revenue generated by the sales of non-essential exchange products cover the overhead of facilities, salaries, marketing, etc?
-Commissaries? Don't get me started...and don't get this oft-repeated threadjack going again.
I know, I know - we've been through this discussion numerous times before. Still, I have to shake my head knowing that we're about to lose training and operating dollars (you know, the funds that allow us to do our jobs), but we're still somehow in the business of selling riding lawnmowers, makeup, and designer clothes.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
I've been a "reader" on here for a while now but wanted to post on this one. First off - thanks for some great reading material! Brings me back to the days when I worked OPS in VFA-15's Ready Room on the TR.
ACC just announced today that they are only going to fund one single-ship demo team in 2012 - the F-22 team. All of the other demo teams (F-15E, F-16 East & West, A-10 East & West) are going away. The Raptor team will do 20 shows next year and the T-Birds will do a full season.
http://www.acc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-111201-048.pdf
ADM Harvey was asked about the Blues at a press conference concerning the VA Beach show in June '12:
Harvey said concerns over budget cuts will not ground the Blue Angels.
"They will be here," he said. "Don't worry about the stories you've read about budget hysteria. They're going to give one of the greatest shows in their history."
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/blue-angels-perform-oceanfront-june
I hope that the VFA-122 and VFA-106 demo teams will not be scaled back.
ACC just announced today that they are only going to fund one single-ship demo team in 2012 - the F-22 team. All of the other demo teams (F-15E, F-16 East & West, A-10 East & West) are going away. The Raptor team will do 20 shows next year and the T-Birds will do a full season.
http://www.acc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-111201-048.pdf
ADM Harvey was asked about the Blues at a press conference concerning the VA Beach show in June '12:
Harvey said concerns over budget cuts will not ground the Blue Angels.
"They will be here," he said. "Don't worry about the stories you've read about budget hysteria. They're going to give one of the greatest shows in their history."
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/blue-angels-perform-oceanfront-june
I hope that the VFA-122 and VFA-106 demo teams will not be scaled back.
Why? If anything, it's a waste to have a dedicated single-ship demo "team" for a fleet aircraft. They should be the first to get the axe. Fleet squadrons handle the Harrier demos; there is no dedicated demo team on either coast. It's a qual that fleet guys get. If we can source it from active duty gun squadrons with our deployment tempo, then so can the Navy.
"Hornet goes left, Hornet goes right, Hornet goes fast, Hornet goes slow" really needs a dedicated aircraft and aircrew? Really?